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Breastfeeding saves lives

Many babies' lives, along with billions of dollars, could be saved if more women exclusively breastfed, a US study has claimed.

In the US alone, which like Australia has a fairly low breastfeeding retention rate, almost 900 babies lives and $13 billion could be saved annually if 90% of women fed their babies breast milk only for the first six months.

The study's findings, published online in the journal Pediatrics, suggest that these are deaths which, along with the many costly illnesses every year, could be prevented by exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months. The illnesses cited include stomach viruses, ear infections, asthma, juvenile diabetes, SIDS and even childhood leaukaemia.

Breastfeeding retention rates

Australia's breastfeeding retention rates aren't the greatest, despite a brilliant start-up rate of well over 90%. According to the latest available figures from The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children in 2004, there is a sharp decline in both full and any breastfeeding with each month post-birth. By one week old, only 80% of infants were fully breastfed, 56% at three months and 14% at six months. The rate of any breastfeeding at six months was 56%.

Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) spokesperson Carey Wood says the study's results show that breastfeeding for the first six months of your bub's life should no longer be considered a lifestyle choice but a public health issue.

“More and more studies are showing that it's so much better for the health and lives of both women and babies when babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life,” she says

“We need to turn our focus away, though, from pressuring mums to breastfeed and instead put in place concrete support for them to continue doing so.

“It's obvious from the fantastic start-up rates here in Australia that women want to breastfeed and are making informed choices to start. But now we need to provide help in the community for women to overcome any hurdles.”

National strategy

The Federal Government has released a Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy 2010-2015 in a bid to improve the retention rates and encourage mums to fully breastfeed for six months, and continue feeding in some capacity for 12 months at least.

As part of that strategy, the government provided funds for the ABA to establish a 24-hour National Breastfeeding Helpline.

Carey says the Federal Government strategy, along with the continuing “normalising” of breastfeeding within the community will have a substantial impact on the health of our future generations.

“But it's not going to just happen. As these figures from the US show, we need to be talking about why it's so important that women breastfeed their babies exclusively for those first six months,” she says.

“We need to have proper research funded to find out why there is such a sharp decline in breastfeeding numbers in those first few months, We need to ensure our health professionals and the community in general is able to support mums in their breastfeeding.

“And the ongoing promotion and normalisation of breastfeeding as the main way to feed your baby needs to continue.”